Maryland Thoracic LigaSure and Signia Powered Right Upper Lobectomy

This video demonstrates a three-port anterior video-assisted thoracoscopic right upper lobectomy, for early stage lung cancer, performed with the aid of novel sealing and stapling devices.

The LigaSure™ is used as the only dissecting instrument, for the sealing of small vessels (less than 7 mm in diameter) and for the lymphadenectomy. This can save cost and time of additional instrumentation, and it also can reduce the number of stapler reloads consumed. The authors describe the use of LigaSure to divide a segmental (A2) pulmonary artery vessel without pre-emptive use of clips.

In this video, they demonstrate how the use of advanced bipolar energy, with the new thoracic Maryland LigaSure, represents a cost-effective tool in minimal invasive lung cancer surgery as it allows:

  1. safe and time efficient dissection of adhesions, pleura, and soft tissues;
  2. division of pulmonary artery vessels up to 7 mm diameter, saving the cost of extra reloads; and
  3. extensive lymphadenectomy with minimal blood and lymph loss.

Furthermore, the authors have demonstrated the adoption of the Signia™ powered stapler to improve the stapler cartridges choice according to tissue thickness, and to allow single-hand, effortless, and safe division of vascular and bronchial structures. The tumor resected was a T1bN0 R0 pulmonary adenocarcinoma.

Additional Resource

Novitsky YW, Rosen MJ, Harrell AG, Sing RF, Kercher KW, Heniford BT. Evaluation of the efficacy of the electrosurgical bipolar vessel sealer (LigaSure) devices in sealing lymphatic vessels. Surg Innov. 2005;12(2):155-160.